I am sure most of use heard of using a straight edge and bottom of the lever is even with the bottom of the bar?

well I want the hood to be flat and almost level, (do not like hood "knobs" pointing at my face, although some people sets it up that way), but my placement puts the lever tip a few mms lower than the bar bottom.

I am using Zipp traditional bend and it is a continous "C" shape. Even so, the band is around the top of the rough texture area.. going down further just doesn't seem usable.

with all the variances in bar drop and reach, i've adopted a different guideline. i set the flat part of the hood tops to be parallel to the bottom of the bar drops. in a lot of cases, it ends up millimeters from the straightedge method, but on the odd bars, it still works...and i hate, hate, hate it when someone rotates the bar up, and lowers the hoods on the bar, in a futile attempt to "level" the transition between the bar and hood. it literally never improves the situation...

Can you guys post some pics of what your talking about? In my setup, I try to have the top of my bar level, and then the transition onto the hood also level, so its pretty much all a straight line, and level with the ground. This usually puts my bar drops pointing towards the rear wheel skewer. I'm always interested in whether or not there is a more comfortable position, but somehow can't picture what your talking about.. I'll probably have to go look at my bike and re-read this..!

Aligning the lever tips to graze a straight edge on the bottom of the bars is old school. It works ok with medium drop round bars, but doesn't work so well with shallow bars designed so that the top of the lever lies flat with the top of the bars. I've tried taping a small block to the ruler to lift both levers to where I like them, but this is hit and miss because the bottom of most bars is slightly curved so it's no better than doing it by eye.

Personally I prefer to put one lever in a good position by eye / sitting on the saddle and testing it until I like the position. Then I tighten it fully. Then I roughly put the other lever in a matching position by eye, and angle it correctly. Then I lay a large pipe on top of both levers and wiggle the second lever until the pipe lies exactly parallel with the top of the bars. I have a 45 cm section of large diameter shower rail in the shed expressly for this. Easy peasy.

Lots of guys like to set the bar up with the hoods and the top of the bar making a smooth transition. Most of the bikes in my collection are set-up like that. Does this result in the bar and hoods looking like the set-up thisislatest hates? Probably. It does look a bit strange, but they have to ride 7 hours a day for a living and choose comfort and speed over looks all the time.

Aligning the lever tips to graze a straight edge on the bottom of the bars is old school. It works ok with medium drop round bars, but doesn't work so well with shallow bars designed so that the top of the lever lies flat with the top of the bars.

+1...as old school as the archaic fitting myth that a bike fits properly when the top of your bars are in the line of sight with your front hub.

There is no right or wrong on this issue...fit your levers where they are comfortable for YOU and enjoy the ride.

my main issue with trying to make the bar/hood transition level is that it brings the hood very low on the bars. then in the drops, the bar is too vertical and the wrist gets cocked up. in the end, if the hood is brought up from that position and put parallel to the bottom of the drops, and the bar is taped, the transition ends up looking and feeling flat anyway.im specifically referring to short/shallow bars like 3t ergosum/ergonova, zipp ss and ssr, etc. but works for all bars.bad:

good (bottom of drops parallel to top flat part of hoods):

levers a bit low, bars a bit high:

even this crazy fsa "new ergo" from a few years back fits into the guideline of hoods parallel to the bottom of the drops.

this is my opinion, no matter how right it may be . im sure to catch a lot of grief for this post, but thats fine.

this is my opinion, no matter how right it may be . im sure to catch a lot of grief for this post, but thats fine.

I don't know why you think you'll catch a lot of grief from your post, I think it's good with pics and all. The first example is hideous for sure (look away). And your points on the other two are good as well. I happen to prefer a classic shaped bar (probably in the minority these days), but after having used classic, then switching to "ergonometric" bars of various shapes when that became the craze, I found that I just like the classic bars best. But there are so many combinations of bars and levers out there now that it's hard to say one way is better than another, although that first example you show is truly hideous.

P.S. But I still think Rick's mathematical representation a few posts back is the best rule to follow, so long as you remember where the "pointy bits" should be pointing.

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